


Re-Education

by FoxArcada



Category: Welcome to Night Vale
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-08-29
Updated: 2013-08-29
Packaged: 2017-12-25 01:32:31
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 765
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/947038
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FoxArcada/pseuds/FoxArcada
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Steve finds Cecil, only to reaffirm his fears that Cecil wants nothing to do with him.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Re-Education

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [Welcome toNight Vale headcanons post](https://archiveofourown.org/external_works/26682) by Anonymous. 



> Hello, This is my first Night Vale fanfiction. When I saw this head canon I couldn’t resist a dreary Steve x Cecil fic. I just think of all the ‘Steve and Cecil were once a couple’ theories there are, this one is a) the most tragic and b) the easiest one to write for. So, I ran with it. I hope everyone enjoys.  
> I do not own Welcome to Night Vale or any related characters. This is a purely fan-made work.  
> ~Fox

“Hey, Cecil.” I called, waiting for the inevitable snap that I always got as a response from the slender blonde.  
Sure enough, it came, “What do you want, Steve?” His tone, as always, was biting, venom seeping into the usual sonorous notes of his lovely voice. The voice that used to whisper me to sleep at night, the voice that still does from the safe distance of the recording studio, the voice I love so dearly. How I hated the poisonous tones he now used with me, and how I longed to hear his true voice crawling within my skull. However, that was not to be. Not since his re-education after our attempt to leave Night Vale.  
I hesitated, the words I wanted to say stalling on my tongue. I finally managed out, “How’re you doing?” It was a relatively safe question, but also one that I hoped would spark memories in my beloved, as I would ask him every day after work with a warm, welcoming embrace. However, it was a decoy, a pause to keep him talking to me long enough to really get to the point I wanted to talk about.  
He shrugged, “Wonderful, as long as you’re not around too much to bring it down.” Now that stung. Not many of his comments got to me, but that… Damn.  
I bit back heartbreak as I chuckled, “You don’t mean that, Cece. C’mon. Don’t tell me you can’t remember all the good times we had together.” In an almost choked whisper I breathed, “They can’t have taken everything, right?” I felt my heart finally caving in as he looked back at me in disgust.  
“You are a terrible person, Steve Carlsberg. There have never been any ‘good times’ between us. You’re a jerk and a liar and I hate you. Why can’t you understand that? I mean, it’s not like I’m hiding the fact. I’ve announced it on the radio!” He turned to walk away, but I caught his arm and held it fast, refusing to let go even when his tattoos began to move so quickly they burned my skin.  
I finally choked out what I’d wanted to ask the whole time, “I heard you were with Carlos, the Scientist. Is that true, Cecil?”  
His face lit up and he beamed, “Yes, I am dating perfect, wonderful Carlos. In ¬fact…” His voice turned deadly again, “You’re making me late for a date with him, so if you would be so kind as to let me go…” I released my grasp and felt thankful for the first time in my life that he didn’t look back at me as he walked away.  
I didn’t want him to see the tears streaming down my face.

* * *

Say what you will about it being ‘creepy’, but I watched Cecil meet up with Carlos in the Arby’s parking lot, which was just down the street from where I had talked with Cecil. I just had to see, had to look at what this man was that I wasn’t.  
For one, he had Cecil’s attention. It was the same kind of attention he used to shower on me, before he was ‘re-educated’. It hurt, seeing this other man receive the love I had once been awarded, to watch him, with all his tentative smiles and shy blushes, be praised under those beautiful, slender fingers just for being him.  
He was handsome, I’ll give him that. He had an ‘angelic’ look to him, with that curly black hair and eyes of melted chocolate. His face was a cherubic sort, with a warm mocha coloring. He still wore his lab coat, but it seemed to be because he simply didn’t notice it, in an adorable, childlike blindness that I believe only he could pull off. In that moment, I saw what Cecil loved about him and began to cry again, my broken heart trying to pick the pieces back together, but ultimately failing for one reason:  
I saw myself in Carlos, in the quietness, the gentle love he gave Cecil, the cool smile that graced his lips, and I knew that he was my replacement. I had disobeyed, and this was my punishment. I was to watch the man I loved more than anything fall in love with my replacement, knowing fully well that I should be the one standing by his side, while he saw me as someone to be hated.  
And as I sat in my car, I sobbed to myself, regretting with all my heart that I had ever even considered taking Cecil from Night Vale.


End file.
